Event Horizon Up Close and Personal

Queen Mary's Dollhouse at Windsor Castle

Windsor Castle-Libby Grimm and I went to Windsor by train and visited the majestic Windsor Castle. The weather was beautiful so it was a perfect day to walk around the castle where Queen Elizabeth spends most weekends. Some of the highlights of the trip to Windsor include Queen Mary’s Dollhouse, which was truly a work of art. The scale model with working electricity and plumbing is kept in a darkened room so as not to damage the miniature art pieces, fabrics, and tapestries. Everything inside the elaborate doll house is made to be as realistic as possible, and it does look amazingly real. There is even a library with tiny hand-made books on the shelves. No expense was spared in creating this work of art and it was a delight to see it along with the rest of the castle.

Shakespeare's Grave at Holy Trinity

A poet to the very end...

The garden at New Place

Shakespeare's Birthplace

Monday, July 9 London Alive: British Museum

When I went on my first London Alive excursion, I made sure to visit the area of the British Museum that contained Celtic and early artifacts from the British Isles since that area of the museum was significant to The Dark is Rising Sequence. In Greenwitch, the third book in the sequence, the story begins with the Drew children standing before an empty display case in the British Museum reading a newspaper article about several aritifacts that had recently been stolen from the museum. The children know immediately who is responsible for the theft of a very important item that is needed to give The Light an advantage in its age-long struggle with The Dark. Even though the story is fictional, it was interesting to stroll through that section of the museum and picture everything just as Susan Cooper described in the book.

British Library, London

...where they believe in really tight security.

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Monday, July 30, 2007 Back to London

The trip back to London started early when Graeme drove me to the train station at Tywyn .

Once I was on the Tywyn-to-Macchynlleth train, it was nice to pass around the Dovey estuary and through Aberdovey and see the boats out in the bay, and the large pastel-painted houses along the cliffs on the other side of the tracks. Aberdovey is where Susan Cooper’s grandmother lived when she was growing up, and where her parents moved when she was 21.

On the way from Macchynlleth to Birmingham, I tried to read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, but I had to stop because I came to the part about Dobbie, and about Fred. First I put on my sunglasses to try to hide the fact that I was crying my eyes out, and then I just had to stop reading because I didn’t have enough tissues with me. Eventually I got out 84 Charing Cross Road and read it. A young woman across the aisle was also reading a copy of it. She told me that her husband had recommended it to her and that it had been on television the previous evening.

On the train trip from Birmingham to Oxford, I saw quite a few flooded fields. One could see some of the effects of the flooding that had started the previous week, but nowhere was the water near the train tracks, so we had no difficulty getting back to London. I had hoped to meet a lady in Oxford to discuss the Kids Lit Quiz International, but wasn't able to work it out. When I finally arrived at Paddington station, it was nice to be back in London for our last week of activities and to see everyone after the break.